We stood at the doors of the document authentication bureau and the dellala(Broker) tells me he would like to be paid 2,000 Br more than our agreement. I stood there in disbelief, unable to find the words to explain all that I wished to say. Piggybacking on my surprised silence his plea continued, “I am a poor man. This is nothing to you.” I felt my blood boil as the payment he was getting was nothing close to what I used to earn in my jobs. I admired his will and energy to get into business for himself, but this was not that. He was asking to be given more than what he was worth. He was asking to be given something he did not earn. I was upset.

In Ethiopia, this is a trend in the work industry. There seems to be a problem figuring out how to properly compensate those who are focused on productive work.

This overvaluation of work and money is rampant in Ethiopia’s workforce. Young people are often under compensated for demanding work, while some are settling for mentalities that revolve around fast cash-making schemes.

In the past week, Ethiopia has received multiple funding streams from monetary institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. While some funds have a clear proposed purpose, others are still in the process of planning. Today we have a country that has a revenues office that rightfully needs to collect taxes, yet it is not well supported as the decisions being made do not serve the long-term changes we hope to see in our country.

Within each industry, the gap between those who are earning money and those who are working, evolving and nurturing their skills is widening. Those who focus less on the work being done while collecting money are being rewarded over and over again, making those who are sticklers for change feel like obstacles.

Real change happens slowly, especially change related to the big mission of building a nation. In the past few years, we have been focusing more and more on the statistics of our earnings. The government cannot keep playing fast and loose with regulations that have such high human impacts. The fact that the recent excise taxes put on the table are already having huge implications that are being felt within the private sector even before official execution is problematic. Some news outlets have shared that foreign investment in breweries have made decisions to scale back new investment, which has implications on the steady employment these behemoths bring forth.